1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to accelerometers and more specifically to accelerometers with piezoelectric actuators.
2. Background Art
In the past piezoelectric actuator elements have been used in accelerometers. When the piezoelectric element is acted on by an acceleration, the force applied to the piezoelectric element strains the element and yields an electric current proportional to the force applied to the piezoelectric element. In some embodiments piezoelectric elements have been employed in conjunction with non-contact electron transfer effects to measure the distance between the piezoelectric element and an object. When such an instrument is accelerated the distance between the object and the piezoelectric element changes and is measured. The distance change is directly related to the acceleration. The displacements measured have until now been limited to linear accelerations of the piezoelectric elements. Angular accelerations were not possible to measure directly with piezoelectric elements since they were linearly polarized.